Commentary: The Case for Abortion – From a Pastor

Although members and leaders Black churches offer many compelling reasons for your support for the candidate and platform of the intended Kamala Harris-Tim Waltz Administrationwe really need to say more about reproductive autonomy as one of the best reasons to support the Democratic presidential ticket. My intention is to argue, from my perspective as a pastor providing pastoral care, that there are moral reasons for accepting abortion care as part of comprehensive health care, as Harris and Walz urged us to do.

One of the truly humbling aspects of pastoral ministry is the invitation to bear witness to the lives of parishioners in their most vulnerable moments. In joy and especially in pain, the spiritual flock seeks its shepherd to pray, to listen, sometimes to advise, but most of all to simply be present and be a witness. Often there is nothing we can do to fix the situation or even make it better, yet our members want us to know what they are going through.

And it is because I am a pastor and witness to the complexity and struggle in the lives of my parishioners that I stand firmly and strongly for reproductive autonomy and against government intervention and interference in the reproductive decisions that individuals and families make.

From birth control to reproductive technologies like IVF to abortion, the reasons why people make reproductive health decisions are as varied as the people themselves. Politicians have demonstrated that they have neither the information nor the nuance to legislate on these issues for everyone. Sometimes, in the midst of debate, it becomes clear that they lack an understanding of basic biological functions. But even at their best, they fail to capture either the breadth or depth of the physiological, social, emotional, and spiritual complexities of their constituents’ lives. If they would simply leave medical decisions to patients and their doctors, we would have a more just and moral nation.

In a country suffering from maternal mortality higher than most of the developed world, and this problem is even more pronounced for black women, the black community and the black church have a responsibility to protect women’s rights to make their own medical decisions. Following That Dobbs solutionThe researchers note that communities already suffering from poverty and inadequate health care will also suffer disproportionate harm in the form of pregnancy complications and maternal deaths. To put it bluntly, more black women will die because of Dobbs.

Pregnancy, as a biological process through which human reproduction occurs, always requires physical sacrifice and carries with it the possibility of death. There are so many different things that can go wrong, more than can be listed in one short essay. But let me offer just a couple of cases that I have observed during my pastoral ministry.

Consider a 30-year-old woman in good pre-pregnancy health who develops hyperemesis gravidarum (HG). Some people euphemistically describe HG as severe morning sicknessbut this description does not yet tell what happens to women who have it, or the danger it poses. A young woman from my community could not resist eating or drinking. During her first trimester of pregnancy, she was hospitalized five times and came close to death several times. Not a single treatment helped. Some decisions needed to be made.

Fortunately, my congregant lives in a state that has no restrictions on abortion. She and her family could make the decision without the added burden of negotiating with the state. If she lived in Texas or another state where abortion is illegal, she would have to deal with the trauma she faced physically and emotionally, as well as the legal burden of convincing the state that she was close enough to death to be able to have an abortion. termination. She will have to hire a lawyer when she needs a doctor.

In another case, a young woman discovered she had a tumor early in the second trimester of pregnancy. Because of the type of tumor her doctors suspected, medical testing required an injection of a chemical that would be lethal to the fetus. Although there was a possibility that she had a different type of tumor, she was asked to quickly decide what tests she wanted because if an abortion was necessary, it would have to happen before the deadline set by the state of Pennsylvania. In this case, state rules created pressure for faster termination when something she needed more information.

Every pastor I know has witnessed countless instances of human complexity in the area of ​​reproduction. A minor who became pregnant as a result of violence and incest. An ectopic pregnancy that must be terminated to save life and fertility. Late pregnancy that turns out to be non-viable and requires abortion to save the mother from sepsis. A miscarriage requiring a D&C procedure to remove any remaining fetal material. In states that restrict abortion, the health care that girls and women need is at risk. And the Trump-Vance administration will only make the situation worse.

Trump’s first presidency led to Dobbs solution. While Trump obfuscates and lies about his intentions during his second presidency, his choice of J.D. Vance tells the true story. Vance seeks to make abortion illegal without exception, even to save the mother’s life, despite the fact that he is cruel mocks and ridicules women who do not have children. In contrast, the Harris-Waltz administration promises to return medical decisions to where they belong, between patient and physician.

As pastors and religious leaders, we cannot fix what ails our members physically, but we can protect them politically so that the weight of their decision-making in difficult and idiosyncratic circumstances is not weighed down by laws that limit their freedom of action. or who tie the hands of their doctors.

Rev. Leslie D. Callahan, Ph.D., is the senior pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she has served for the past 15 years.